When to use it
Use it before a weekend shop when you are unsure the supermarket opens.
The sentence in English — “Is the supermarket open on Sundays?”
In “Is the supermarket open on Sundays?” ‘Is’ moves to the front, ‘open’ is an adjective, and plural ‘Sundays’ means every Sunday.
- Is
- verbbe · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · form of "to be"; it moves to the front to make the question
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- supermarket
- nounnoun
- open
- adjectiveadjective; in English a shop "is open"
- on
- prepositionpreposition used with days of the week
- Sundays
- nounplural noun; days of the week take a capital letter
The sentence in Swahili — “Je, supamaketi hufunguliwa Jumapili?”
In “Je, supamaketi hufunguliwa Jumapili?” the prefix ‘hu-’ marks a habit and ‘-liwa’ makes the verb passive: ‘hufunguliwa’ means it is usually opened. ‘supamaketi’ is borrowed from English, and days need no preposition.
- Je
- particle'Je' starts the question
- supamaketi
- noun'supermarket', borrowed from English
- hufunguliwa
- verbfungua · tense: habitual (hu-) · voice: passive (-iwa) · hu- (usually) + fungua 'open' + -liwa (passive)
- Jumapili
- proper noun'Sunday'
English × Swahili — What changes from one language to the other
English says ‘Is … open on Sundays’; Swahili uses one habitual passive verb and ‘Jumapili’ alone.
Example conversation
— Je, supamaketi hufunguliwa Jumapili?
— Is the supermarket open on Sundays?
— Ndiyo, kuanzia saa tatu hadi saa kumi na mbili.
— Yes, from nine to six.